How the Emotional Content of Music Affects Player Behaviour and Experience in Video Games

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Abstract

Previous research studying music’s effect on video games has focused on musical properties, such as tempo, to create particular emotional player experiences. However, music is complex, and selecting music using a particular parameter may not guarantee that the music will be experienced in a particular way (e.g., higher-tempo music will not necessarily make a player feel more rushed, as previous work implies). Through a player study, we demonstrate that music labelled by its emotional content (e.g., peaceful or powerful) could provide a better means for designers to choose music for particular emotional effects. Our results show that powerful (rather than higher tempo) music can significantly increase experienced tension and risktaking play style compared to peaceful music. We provide game designers and composers with critical new information about how music can be chosen and designed to target play experience and shape player behaviour, suggesting that music’s effects in gameplay need to be studied more holistically.

Publisher Link

https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/10585638

Citation

Joshua Roberts, Jason Wuertz, Max V. Birk, Scott Bateman, and Daniel J. Rea. 2024. How the Emotional Content of Music Affects Player Behaviour and Experience in Video Games. In 2024 IEEE Gaming, Entertainment, and Media Conference (GEM), June 2024. 1–6. https://doi.org/10.1109/GEM61861.2024.10585638